I Never Learned Patience Until I Had a Glider

Written by: TMarie - GA Owner/Admin

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You can ask anyone. I am the most impatient person there is. I work in customer service and that was about all the patience I could ever handle.

I guess I never really had to be patient for the most part. If there was a time when I did, I could find some way to take my mind off of it. This usually involved walking, driving with the radio blaring while singing at the top of my lungs too, or going out for a night out with the girls. This worked really well… until I had a glider.

Erwin was an impulse buy. I was lucky however to have a boyfriend and his mother who knew enough about gliders to get me started until I could research more in the next few days (although that ended up being an ongoing process). If you ask any glider owner what is important for a new owner to know I bet you they will say bonding as one of the top items. Of course reading on it looks easy, and heck, they are just little animals, how hard can it be?

Starting off with a glider from bad conditions is bad enough, but Erwin had never been around people and was at least seven months old when I bought him. He had it set in his mind that even though I am giving him lots of new nice things, he was NOT going to be nice back. After all I HAD to do this, I was his mother.

Bonding with Erwin reminded me of the song Opposites Attract by Paula Abdul. It was like taking two steps forward and then two steps back. I would get him to the point where I could put him in a bonding pouch and then he would bite the heck out of me the next time I tried. I would get him to accept licky treats and jump onto my arm and use me as protection and the next day it would take an hour to catch him when he jumped out of his cage as I opened it to feed him. Honestly, it really annoyed the heck out of me. I felt like just letting him have his own way.

One thing that helped me was thinking from his perspective. I am how many times larger than him? No wonder he is scared out of his wits. I started playing with him and bonding with him on terms him and I could both agree on. I also bought him a Chinchilla bath house as he was more protective in a pouch (and also quite the digger). I bought a tent for us to play in so he would learn to explore and love me instead of the room he was in.

All this helped me very much in my bonding process with Erwin. Now he is tamer than I ever imagined. It took all the patience I had and TONS more to get this far with him and not give up. Even now there are days that I feel like we are progressing backwards, but it is not as near as bad as it was when we were first getting to know each other.

Never give up with your glider and never take a break bonding. Bonding is an ever going process, even if you think you are completely bonded and have had your glider for many years. Gliders are very much like humans. It only takes one little thing to take that trust and bond away. If you learn anything from your glider, learn patience and enjoy all they have to offer.

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